Today's airport terminal operations are complex and varied from airport to airport. Airports today are, in many cases, the limiting factor in aviation system capacity. Each airport has a unique set of capacity limiting factors which may include; limited tarmac, runways, suitable approaches, navigational or/and Air Traffic Control (ATC) facilities.
Furthermore, operational requirements in the terminal area involve all facets of aviation, communication, navigation and surveillance. The satisfaction of these requirements with technological/procedural solutions should be based upon three underlying principles; improved safety, improved capacity and cost effectiveness.
The United States alone currently contains some 17,000 airports, heliports and seabases. Presently only the largest of these can justify the investment in dedicated navigation and surveillance systems while the vast majority of smaller airports have neither. Clearly, a new approach is required to satisfy aviation user, airport operator, airline and ATC needs.
It would therefore be an advance in the art to provide a cost effective Airport Control and Management System which would provide navigation, surveillance, collision prediction, zone/runway incursion and automated airport lighting control based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) as the primary position and velocity sensor on board participating vehicles. It would be still a further advance of the art if this system were capable of performing the navigation, surveillance, collision prediction, and zone/runway incursion both on board the aircraft/vehicles and at a remote ATC, or other monitoring site.
With the advent of new technologies such as the Global Positioning System, communication and computer technology, the application of new technologies to the management of our airports can provide improved efficiency, enhanced safety and lead to greater profitability for our aviation industry and airport operators.
Considerable activity is now in progress on the integration of GPS technology into the aviation system. Efforts underway by such organizations as Harris Corporation, MIT Lincoln Labs, Terra Star and others are investigating the application of GPS to aviation.
On Aug. 12, 1993, Deering System Design Consultants, Inc. (DSDC) of Deering, N.H., successfully demonstrated their Airport Control & Management System (AC&M) to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). After many years of development efforts, the methods and processes described herein were demonstrated to Mike Harrison of the FAA's Runway Incursion Office, officials from the FAA's Satellite Program Office, the FAA New England Regional Office, the Volpe National Transportation System Center, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, the Office of U.S. Senator Judd Gregg and the Office of U.S. Representative Dick Swett. This was the first time such concepts were reduced to a working demonstrable system.
The inventor has taken an active stand to promote the technology in a public manner and, as such, may have informed others to key elements of this application. The inventor has promoted this technology. DSDC's airports philosophy has been described in general terms to the aviation industry since it was felt industry and government awareness was necessary. The intent of this application is to identify and protect key elements of the system.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the AC&MSM invention stated herein is unique and promotes public well being.
This invention most generally is a system and a method for the control of surface and airborne traffic within a defined space envelope. GNSS-based, or GPS-based data is used to define and create a 3-dimensional map, define locations, to compute trajectories, speeds, velocities, static and dynamic regions and spaces or volumes (zones) including zones identified as forbidden zones. Databases are also created, which are compatible with the GNSS dam. Some of these databases may contain, vehicle information such as type and shape, static zones including zones specific to vehicle type which are forbidden to the type of vehicle, notice to airmen (notams) characterized by the information or GNSS dam. The GNSS data in combination with the data bases is used, for example, by air traffic control, to control and manage the flow of traffic approaching and departing the airport and the control of the flow of surface vehicles and taxiing aircraft. All or a selected group of vehicles may have GNSS receivers. Additionally, all or a selected group may have bi-directional digital data and voice communications between vehicles and also with air traffic control. All of the data is made compatible for display on a screen or selected screens for use and observation including screens located on selected vehicles and aircraft. Vehicle/aircraft data may be compatibly superimposed with the 3-dimensional map data and the combination of data thus displayed or displayable may be manipulated to provide selected viewing. The selected viewing may be in the form of choice of the line of observation, the viewing may be by layers based upon the data and the objective for the use of the data.